. >> the lunch took place in november 2008, a week after the election. obama won the white house. but gays and lesbians lost the right to marry in california. >> we're trying to figure out what we do next. then we thought about the idea of a possible legal challenge to proposition 8, and serendipitously, a friend of my wife's came by the table. >> the friend suggested they would find an ally in her former brother-in-law who turned out to be ted olsen, a towering figure in the conservative legal movement. so that stunned you, right? >> yes, it more than stunned me. it stunned me, but i said if this is true, this is the home run of all times. i mean, the idea that ted olsen, this arch conservative, the solicitor general for george bush who had argued bush v. gore and basically put me in bed for a couple days, i was so depressed after bush v. gore, was interested in gay rights. i thought, let's check it out. >> didn't you have any doubts about ted olsen? >> you know, they say that politics makes strange bed fellows. you don't have a stranger bed fellow than me and ted olsen. >> i was